Scores of Boko Haram militants were killed following multiple airstrikes launched by the Nigerian military in the Sambisa Forest located in the country’s northeastern region, an official said on Friday.
The airstrikes were carried out on December 1 and December 2 at Bone and Mudu in the Yale-Kumshe axis as well as the S Region in Sambisa Forest, the military’s spokesman John Enenche told reporters in Abuja.
The Sambisa Forest is known as the largest training camp of the Boko Haram group in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country.
Enenche said a series of intelligence and surveillance missions by military jets and helicopter gunships had shown evidence that the Boko Haram militants were using the three locations as staging areas, where the terrorists store their weapons and logistics items, as well as plan and launch attacks.
The military attack aircraft engaged the target areas in successive passes, he said, adding a suspected anti-aircraft gun station was also taken out at the Sambisa S Region, as the terrorists fired at the attack aircraft.
The Boko Haram group has been trying to establish an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria since 2009. The deadly group has also extended its attacks to countries in the Lake Chad Basin.
